Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-02-19
ARTISTS AND THEIR WORK.
A Unique Collection of Works of Grent
Masters

Partisan families owning pictures by the
old masters have loaned these precious
treasures for public exhibition at the
School of Fine Arts, in behalf of the suf-
ferers by the recent foundations in the
south of France. What renders this ex-
hibition remarkable is the fact that these
pictures, l64 in number, and all done by
celebrated artists in former days, includ-
ing Raphael, Michael Angelo, Murillo,
Rubens, Holbeln, Sir Joshua Reynolds
and others OF the first rank in their
day, have never before been exhibited to
the public, at least during the present
generation. They have been the heir
looms of favored families, and have hitli-
erto been seen only by the private guests
of great houses. 1t WAS at the instiga-
tion of a committee of Paris journalists,
with Henry ROchefort for chsirman IS
devoted picture-lover), that these noble
pieces of workmanship, which have been
so long hidden from the worlds eyes,
have happily been brought forth from
their elegant but private hiding places
and made to do double duty: primarily
in the promotion of public beneticence,
and secondarily in the education of pub
lie taste.
This little cluster OF paintings-a per-
feet bijou of a coliection-maY be char
acteTiZed as consisting of the minor works
Of the great masters, and, as such, it is
Ike volume of sonnet5 or madrigals
gathered from the great poets. That so
many such pictures should be in the pos
session Of private owners, III single
city, Is q surprise to all spectators.
The Raphael there is but one, but it is
an exhibition in itself,) is an exquisite
portrait of the handsome young Duke of
Mantua-a work which Fasari saw in Ra
phael's own studio, and before the paint
was yet dry. 1t was owned af-
forwards oy Charles l. of Eng
gland, and now belongs to Baron AL
phonse de Rothchild. The color is as
bright and fresh and characteristic as
that of La Belle Jardiniere in the Louvre.
On close inspection the surface reveals q
foe network of Cracks-markings by the
tooth OF envious time-but this effect,
instead of being a detriment or injury,
served only to stamp the beautiful can
vas with the authentic warrant of Yenera-
bic antiquity. This smiling, breathing,
speaking portrait, is nearly 400 years old,
and yet It still blooms like flower.
u IIOlJ h'ul4J1 ny NluAlAlO1 SOllIl4Du
by Baron de Hirsch Gereuth, shows the
Spanish master in his most careful style.
Although this artist often gave the Virgin
the half vulgar expression of mere Ara
CONAN peasant woman, yet here he has
idealiZed her features into look of high
and holy calm; and he has overspread the
whole composition by a glow of rich,
warm color, suggestive of a climate where
y l1o IN h,,,,
dred, whether in private or public CALLER
les, is equal in charm to this exquisite
specimen of mis- happiest handicraft.
The celebrated Duke of Ava, whose
portrait the historian Motley has SO
windy sketched with the pen, is here
seen painted to the life by Antonio Moro,
VINO executed this painstaking and literal
likeness at the order of Philip II. OF
Spain, as a gift to mis- Catholic bride,
Queen Mary Tudor of England. The
cruel Duke, crafty and coldblooded, is
represented in a three quarter length,
standing erect, "Clothed in complete
STEEL" holding a baton and unconsciously
exhibiting himself to the hateful gaze OF
pGsterity. The forehead is meager, the
face long, thin 8nd sallow, the beard
scanty, the bps sensuous, and the eyes
small and haZel-suCh as, when kindled
with anger, would have been piercing and
black. The picture is stiff and unpleas-
ing, but 1t bears its own evidence to the
fsithfulness with which it renders the
image of the scourge Of the Netherlands.
1t belongs to NJ. Stephane Bourgeois.
Gericault-that strange and somber
genius who painted the Wreck Of the
Medusa-is seen to great advantage in
this small collection in series of eight
portrait studies of inmates of mad
house, each exhibiting Enthusiastically q
characteristic look of madness. These
melancholy and pathetic faces are the de-
light fsnd despair Of all the young oil
students who have thus for the first time
had the opportunity to see and study this
strange group. Another portrait by the
same master attracts great attention,
not on account of any unusual
felicity in its execution fOr it is
not a masterpiece), but because it is a
likeness of Lord Byron. The poet is rep
resented in an open field, presumably in
Greece, sitting on q rock, near brCk n
fragment Of Il temple, bare headed but
clad with heavy OverCOat, aud wearing
a stiff stand-up collar of pattern any
thing but Byronic. The face IS i'll profile,
with the bright open sky tor back
ground. The eyes are blue, the hair
brown, the cheek bones high, the face
Tuddy, and the general expression more
like that OF robust country farmer than
that Of Childe Harold en- his romantic
pilgrimage. This picture is the property
of NJ. Henri ROChefOrt.
A landscape by Turner shows like all
his works at the present day. the fearful
ravages which chemical decomposition has
made in the pigments which ne was so
unfortunate as to select. Though Van
Eyck, who Invented oil paints four CEN
turtles ago, is still g marvel of freshness
in all his cOlors, yet Turner-whom living
men not yet old saw, knew and remember
WELLS already fading sway like a
withered leaf. A young American artist,
while lately engaged in copying Turner
IN London, happened to attract the atten-
ton of Mr.. Ruskin, VINO was passing
through the National gallery, in Trafalgar
square. The great critic looked sadly at
the faded original, and said: "My young
friend, you are painting q ghost" The
Turner in the present exhibition is even
a ghostlier and more bleached out and
decomposed than the English remains of
the same artist.
few pieces of sculpture edcrn the
present exhibition, four in all; three of
- ,.sa,Nr mt Fnrr